Orientation to the Capstone Project

Touro University California August 28, 2018

Sahai Burrowes, PhD, MALD (Capstone Coordinator)

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What is a Capstone Project? A substantial, original, independently written manuscript & presentation

Concerns a significant public health problem (consistent with track)

Part of the MPH culminating experience

●  Requires you to synthesize & integrate knowledge acquired in

coursework & other learning experiences

●  Apply theory & principles in a situation that approximates professional

practice

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Timeframe: 3-4 Semesters

1.  Planning and project development ( 1st & 2nd semesters) a.  Finding advisors

b.  Writing proposal

c.  Getting IRB exemption or approval

2.  Conducting the project ( 2nd and/or 3rd semesters),

3.  Analyzing, writing up, & presenting (last semester)

Often need 5th semester! Duals: Do as much as possible while still on campus (2nd year in program)

Only register for Capstone course in your last semester 3

Stage 1: Planning the Capstone

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What Kind of Projects can be

used for Capstones?

●  Scholarly research on

public health problem

or interventions

●  Systematic review of

the literature

●  Health policy analysis ●  Program evaluation

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Research ●  Qualitative (content analysis, interviews, focus groups, observation)

●  Quantitative (descriptive, hypothesis testing)

●  Strongly recommend using secondary data ○  Faster, cleaner data, allows more complex analysis

○  Public health datasets can be found on the Touro University Library Website

○  Faculty often have data sets that they are interested in having you analyze

○  Newspapers, “grey literature”, public meeting minutes, radio, internet are

qualitative data sources for content analysis

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Systematic Review of the Literature Collates & summarizes empirical evidence on an

intervention/behavior that meets pre-specified eligibility

criteria in order to answer a research question

Q: What kind of criteria do you think are often used?

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Program Evaluation ●  Evaluation of an existing public

health program using original data

●  Flexible: many different types of evaluation: https://cyfar.org/different-types-evaluation

●  Can use primary or secondary data

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Policy Analysis A structured analysis of the public health and political implications of a current or proposed policy compared to several other policy alternatives using clear evaluation criteria.

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What kind of project are you planning on doing?

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Who Can be my Advisor?

●  Any PH faculty based expertise &

interest. (List of faculty advisors )

●  Primary advisor will help you choose

secondary

●  BOTH advisors must approve ○  Capstone proposal and IRB screening form ○  Drafts of manuscripts ○  Readiness to present work and the final

Capstone manuscript

●  Outside advisors ○  Ok but Primary & Secondary must be PH

Faculty ○  Outsiders play no role in grading or approving

projects at TUC

By default, Primary Capstone Advisor is

Faculty Advisor

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Limitations & Common Questions

●  Can not use coursework for Capstone

●  Can link project to Field Study project but can not

duplicate

●  Encouraged to work on Advisors’ projects ○  Must be separate, “carved out” activity for you, not just you doing

professor’s work

○  Advisors own data & project: need approval for publication or presentation 12

Proposal Guidance

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Adapted from Penn State Graduate Writing Center Workshop

A Proposal is Not a Contract

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Expect several iterations

Will have to tweak as you go along

Be flexible and patient with yourself!

Proposal Development Considerations on topic ●  Feasible? ●  Interests you? ●  Meets competencies? ●  Makes a contribution?

●  Must submit 1 semester before filing

●  Cannot file or present a project that has no approved proposal

●  Spring deadline (presenting in summer or fall 2017): March 30, 2018

●  Fall deadline (presenting in Spring or Summer 2019): not yet set. Some time in September

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Proposal reviewed by a quorum of faculty who give advice to your advisor ●  Reject ●  Proceed ●  Revise & resubmit

Your Proposal Describes your Proposed Plan of Work:

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●  What you intend to study (goals & objectives/research questions).

●  How you intend to study your topic (study design & methodology).

●  Why this topic needs to be studied (significance/background/literature review).

●  When you will complete this work (timeline). ●  Where you will conduct this work.

Who can Help you Develop your Proposal? ●  Your primary & secondary advisors: help narrowing research

questions, accessing data sources, thinking through justification

●  Dr. Jaesin Sa: can help with methods, research design

○  You can sign up for office hours with him

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General Proposal Outline

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Roughly 2000 words, 5 pages

●  Background/Literature Review

●  Goals & Objective

●  Study Design

●  Methodology

●  Results

●  Ethical Concerns

●  Discussion

●  Conclusion & Significance

Make as detailed as possible

IRB Screening All projects must be screened before activities begin regardless of project type.

Screening form determines whether project is exempt or needs review

●  Exempt: not research, secondary deidentified data, no human subjects ●  Review needed: research, human subjects, primary data, identifying info

Projects needing review require submission of IRB proposal & approval from IRB committee: guidance on creating a proposal is on the TUC IRB website

Proposal review takes about a month

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No Retroactive IRB Approval !

Must receive IRB approval or exemption before data

collection (primary data) or data analysis (secondary

data)

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Switching from Capstone to Exam & Vice Versa

HEAVILY discouraged ●  Once submit proposal, must complete Capstone or wait 1

academic year to substitute for exam.

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Stage 2: Conducting Your Capstone

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Conducting Your Capstone Fine-tuning analysis plan, conducting data analysis, doing data collection, doing preliminary analysis

●  Involves one or two semesters of work.

●  Expect to spend at least 10-12 hours per week

●  Meet with advisors regularly to discuss the project and troubleshoot problems.

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Stage 3: Writing the Capstone

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Enrolling in Capstone Course PBHC 645 : One-unit, one-semester course, pass/fail

Only enroll in this class when you & advisors feel that you can reasonably:

●  Finish analyzing data, ●  Write up project findings, & ●  Prepare for an oral presentation in a single semester. Usually your final semester.

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Timeline for Working with Advisors First Advising Meeting: ●  Finalize Background, & plan

& revise Analysis ●  Due beginning of semester

Second Advising Meeting: ●  Preliminary data analysis

results due ●  End of 1st month of

semester

Third Advising Meeting: ●  First Draft Due ●  10 weeks before end of

semester

May have several additional meetings and drafts of manuscript

Fourth Advising Meeting: ●  Final Draft ●  3 weeks before presentation

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Presentation ●  Usually the last Thursday before end of semester

●  Not graded but feedback given

●  Presentation files uploaded to Blackboard 3 days before.

●  20 minutes presentation, 10 minutes Q&A

●  Can be conducted remotely

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Fin...

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Tips Use reference software: Zotero, Endnote

Follow up with advisors to get on their agenda

Take notes along the way

Develop a writing habit (30 mins on Capstone every day, first thing)

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Manuscript Format Research projects & systematic reviews required to be written & formatted as a journal article for:

●  PLoS One,

●  American Journal of Public Health, or

●  The Lancet Global Health

Other journals ok with advisor approval

Evaluations & policy analysis optional to write as journal article

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Manuscript Guidelines: Generic Outline ●  Background/Literature Review

●  Goals & Objective

●  Study Design

●  Methodology

●  Results

●  Ethical Concerns

●  Discussion

●  Conclusion & Significance

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●  References

●  Appendices: IRB approval letters, curricula, letters of support, coding sheets, data analysis programming files, data collection instruments required.

●  Datasets: Electronic copies of all primary datasets not owned by another organization. Web links to secondary public datasets

See handbook: Table 3, pg. 22, & Appendix E

Presentation ●  Usually the last Thursday before end of semester

●  Not graded but feedback given

●  Presentation files uploaded to Blackboard 3 days before.

●  20 minutes presentation, 10 minutes Q&A

●  Can be conducted remotely

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Final Submission Documents

All documents uploaded to Blackboard

❏  Final, clean electronic version of manuscript

❏  All appendices, datasets, & supporting documents.

❏  Publication statement (Appendix H)

❏  Evaluation rubric signed by Primary & Secondary Advisor

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Incompletes

Receive grade of “INC”, if cannot complete Capstone during semester

Have 2 semesters to make up or else fail. You will remain an “active MPH student” during this time

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Ownership of data & tools for abandoned projects reverts to the TUC Public Health Program & can be used by other students or faculty for future projects.

Introduction

Should:

●  Describe the broad foundations of your study—provide sufficient context for readers.

●  Indicate the general scope of your project.

●  Engage the readers.

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Keep it short! Avoid jargon

Introduction: Example

Although they did not know of the germs the animals might carry, residents of US cities in the 1860s and 70s cited the flies, roaches, and rats who swarmed the tenements in arguing for community sanitary programs. In the 1950s vermin provided justification for housing and health agencies to pursue urban renewal, and also gave tenant activists a striking symbol of officials’ neglect of their neighborhoods. Today, though we know that vermin produce indoor allergens, and we have pesticides designed to keep vermin at bay, the fact that both may be hazardous confuses parents, health officials, and other advocates who seek to protect health. As long as people have lived in cities, pest animals have joined us in our homes and buildings, affected our health, and propelled our policies on the urban environment. The social geography of pests, however, reflects the social position and physical surroundings of our neighborhoods. The researcher’s objective is to use the ecological history and social geography of pest animals, which have been blamed for several kinds of disease exposures throughout the past two centuries, to investigate how health and environmental conditions are connected with poverty in cities.

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Problem Statement

●  Answer the question: “What is the gap that needs to be filled?” and/or “What is the problem that needs to be solved?”

●  State the problem clearly early in a paragraph.

●  Limit the variables you address in stating your problem or question.

●  Consider framing the problem as a question. 37

Example of Problem Statement Reports on the state of freshwater reserves warn that severe local shortages are imminent, and predict that violent conflicts will emerge in water-scarce regions (Ohlson 1995, Elhance 1999). Water scarcity has been shown to cause civil conflict, particularly when accompanied by high population density, poverty, and income inequality (Homer-Dixon 1994, 1996; Hauge and Ellingsen, 1998). Urban migrant communities, where ethnic, religious, and class differences can exacerbate tensions, and community-wide patterns of adaptation to environmental scarcities are not well-formed, may be particularly vulnerable to water conflicts (Moench 2002). To better understand how conflicts develop in water-scarce regions, research is needed on the social and economic factors that mediate cooperation and conflict (Ronnfeldt 1997). I propose to do an in-depth study of Villa Israel, a barrio of Cochabamba, Brazil, where conflict over water is an established part of life.

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Purpose/Aims/Rationale/Research Questions ●  Explain the goals & objectives of project.

●  Show the original contributions of your study.

●  Provide a more detailed account of the points summarized in the introduction.

●  Include a rationale for the study

○  Why is it needed?

○  What is the theoretical underpinning for the project?

●  Be clear about what your study will not address.

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Example The guiding research question is: Under what conditions do Latinos in Queens, NY, switch their ethnic identification? This involves the following specific objectives: To document the incidence of multiple ethnic identities among research participants. This involves collecting life histories that focus on the ethnic background of informants and their experience with ethnicity. To determine the contexts under which people invoke their ethnic identity. This involves collecting data on characteristics of the community and social networks of communities. It will also involve prolonged shadowing observations of the participants (with their consent) in their day-to-day activities. [etc.]

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Literature Review: Purpose

●  Flesh out the background of your study. ●  Critically assess important research trends or areas of

interest. ●  Describe potential gaps in knowledge. ●  Establish a need for current and/or future research

projects.

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Literature Review ●  You are entering a scholarly conversation

already in progress. The literature review shows that you’ve been listening and that you have something valuable to say.

●  After assessing the literature in your field, you should be able to answer the following questions: ○  Why should we study (further) this research topic/

problem? ○  What contributions will my project make to the existing

literature?

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Literature Review: Tips Categorize the literature into recognizable topic clusters: ●  stake out the various positions that are relevant to your project, ●  build on conclusions that lead to your project, or ●  demonstrate the places where the literature is lacking.

Avoid “Smith says X, Jones says Y” literature reviews: Synthesize! Avoid including all the studies on the subject. Avoid polemics, praise, and blame.

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Methodology ●  Introduce the overall methodological approach. ●  Describe the specific methods of data collection. ●  Explain how you intend to analyze and interpret your

results (e.g., the kinds of statistical analysis & your theoretical framework).

●  Address potential limitations.

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Tips on Drafting Methodology

Break down your methodology into subsections. ●  Sampling & selection of participants ●  Survey & interview process (what, how long, structured, recorded) ●  Interpretive and analytic framework (what theories about health,

behavior, policy, etc, are your assumptions or hypotheses based on ●  Methods of qualitative/quantitative analysis (coding, t-tests,

regression) Your methods section may also require supporting literature. ●  E.g., are you using validated instruments?

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Methodology Example The research plan will proceed in two phases. During the first phase, I will select a 60-household purposive sample, create and test interview protocols, [and] choose key informants. . . . During the second phase, I will conduct in-depth interviews with key informants and four ethnographic interviews with each household in the sample. . . . The research design has several strengths. First, ethnographic study will yield data with high internal validity about how responses to water scarcity evolve over the wet-to-dry cycle (Kirk and Miller 1986). Second . . . (After providing a rationale for the research design, the author goes on to describe in detail the site selection and methods of data collection and analysis).

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Ethical Considerations ●  Risks and benefits to participants likely to raise ethical concerns.

○  Risks: wasted time, mental discomfort, stigma, confidentiality breach ○  Benefits: knowledge, skills)

●  How participants are protected from potential risks or harm

●  Vulnerable populations implicated (e.g., sex workers, non-English speakers)

●  Data management, recruitment & project staff training procedures & how mitigate the risks of any potential confidentiality breaches

●  How informed consent is obtained from the research participants 47

Timeline/Plan of Work Some things to keep in mind: ●  Be aware of deadlines. ●  Do not be overly ambitious. ●  Remember that your proposed timeline demonstrates your

awareness of the various elements of the study: ○  IRB approval

○  design ○  negotiation of entry into the study site;

○  Drafting & redrafting

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Significance/Implications

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●  Discuss the methodological, substantive, contribution.

●  State the practical importance of the problem.

●  Explain the usefulness or benefits of the study to both the outside world and the research community.

Biggest Pitfalls ●  No clear research question

●  Vagueness/lack of detail regarding analysis: need to justify method used for analysis

●  Under-ambitious projects/ no contribution to PH literature

●  Overambitious project: KISS, expect changes and multiple iterations, create a timeline

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Tools Academic Phrasebank http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

Harvard School of Public Health Writing Resources

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/educational-programs/writing-and-skills-resources/

Zotero

https://www.zotero.org/

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http://cehs.tu.edu/publichealth/culminatingexperience/capstone.html

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